“Thanks to this ministry five thousand Catholics have come home,” said Fr David Daly, our rector, as he introduced the guest speaker of last Friday’s conference. To which Tom Peterson, the founder of
Catholics Come Home, commented, “Actually, by the grace of God, the number is five hundred thousand.”
People return to the Church because they are invited. This is why the New Evangelization is so important. People who have lived alienated from the Church for sometimes decades should receive a chance to return and feel themselves at home once again. This is what Tom Peterson came to share with us: the power of an invitation. This is how
he came back, how he has brought others back and how
we ought to bring others back.
His years as an ad producer gave him the tools to put forward some very creative and compelling ads on television to invite Catholics back to the Church. His invitation to embrace the New Evangelization so that many more will hear those kind words, which are said at the end of Tom’s ads: “Welcome home.”